Day Three, Shete Boka

I do most of our "vacation planning," which means I research all the things to do when we travel.  Day two, the aquarium was not as good as we had hoped, so I think Rob was a little hesitant when I suggested that we go to the northern tip of the island to Shete Boka National Park to see the blowholes.  Ryan had been asking to go on a hike since "that's what mommy and daddy did in Hawaii."  There was another national park with a true Diamond Head type hike, but I didn't think we were up for that.  Shete Boka promised "gentle 20 minute hikes."  

The park is located 40 miles from the hotel.  In the US, that would have taken, probably 30 minutes.  But in Curacao it takes over an hour.  When we were about 15 miles from the park, we entered a construction zone which slowed us to a crawl and left us driving on a rock roadbed.  Fun.   

I took this photo because they were afraid to drive on the construction road, so they held hands the whole way. But now I notice Ryan looks like he's about to fall asleep. And he's flipping me the bird. Lovely.

I still don't think Rob was convinced as we pulled in.  It looked like a roadside attraction, I'll give him that.  But I had watched Youtube videos, so I knew what was in store for us!  There are four "bokas" in the park, Boka Table, Boka Kalki, and Boka Pistol. Boka means inlet. by the way.  Boka Tabla has a cave that you can go into, but the woman at the front of the park said it was slippery and we shouldn't take the kids in. 

Our first stop was Boka Tabla, viewed from above. Ryan explained this the best, they are exploding waves.  Here on the north side of the island there is no coral reef or barrier islands to break the force of the waves, so the water rushes into these inlets and explodes into the air.  It was a breathtaking view, unfortunately our visit there was brief as the looming rain finally started to fall.

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We got back into the car to wait out the rain. When it stopped we drove to a parking lot, from which we could hike to both Boka Kalki and Boka Pistol.  The first section of hike was through a very cool mangrove forest where we saw lots of lizards and crabs.

The forrest led right to the inlet, which was a long beach, not very wide, with sand and giant rocks.  We explored for about 30 minutes, watching the powerful water, checking out tide pools, and throwing rocks.  It may sound like hyperbole, but this is one of the most amazing places I have ever been.  I could have sat here and watched the water all day.

I thought Rob looked pretty cool up on this rock, so I climbed up for a selfie.  Is it a selfie if there are two people in it?  A doublie?  

Then I realized I had no idea how I was going to get down from the big rock.  Rob offered to help, but if you know me you know I refuse all help.  Instead I decided to jump.  Rob said, "I'm just going to take some pictures of that."  I totally deserve what I got!

Preparing to jump.

Action shot.

Landing on my butt. Not a good look.

Luckily I was back on my feet and sand free when Rob's "mates" arrived to join us for the hike to Boka Pistol.  One of the mates, JT, made a huge impression on Ryan by catching a lizard.  They were pretty much BFFs.

The hike to Boka Pistol was just like what I imagine hiking on the moon would be like, if there was an ocean on the moon.  Ok, terrible analogy, but we hiked about half a mile through a desolate stretch beside the ocean.  It was surreal.  And the waves exploded the whole time, going probable a good 20 feet into the air.  

See? It looks like the moon.

After the hike, everyone was hungry so we skipped the final boka headed out of the park.  Our lunch destination was Playa Lagun, another amazing water view with a clifftop restaurant.  My only regret is that we didn't have swimsuits or beach stuff with us.

Lunch was delicious.  I haven't really been telling you about what we ate, but it was all good!  Curacao has a unique blend of Dutch cuisine and the flavors of it's neighbor, South America.  There is also, naturally, a lot of fresh fish.  And you will occasionally see iguana on the menu, but we never tried it.  Unlike the states, very few places offered a kids menu, but you know my two, they are adventurous eaters.  Most places did have a crosti on the menu, which is similar to what we would call a panini.  The crosti, however, were usually on french bread and came in cheese, ham and cheese, or Hawaiian.  Yum!

We drove back to the hotel hoping the kids would nap, but they didn't.  Once back in our room, we took a quiet time and then headed to the pool for a swim.  For dinner, we decided to order pizza and found another thing that is lacking in Curacao.  Fast pizza delivery.  The Pizza Hut was about a mile away from the hotel and the pizza took an hour and a half to get there.  Luckily the kids were in the pool and didn't complain much.

So that was Day Three, we saw some amazing nature and our one bad pizza experience was balanced out by lunch with an amazing view.  Up tomorrow? The best beach day ever!